Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Obama (and Ike) visit Flint

This political event gives me a great excuse to run some more of Mary Fisher's great photos of Flint in the fifties. On October 1, 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the Vehicle City. Ike gave a speech downtown touching on foreign policy, the Korean War, and Democratic partisanship. (I apologize in advance for my inability to figure out how to insert an arrow in the photos to identify Ike. Consider this a presidential version of Where's Waldo?)

You may need to break out the magnifying glass for this, but Ike is on the far left, framed by the second window on the left, wearing a light-colored suit and distinguished by his familiar bald head.

The speaker's podium. No idea if Ike is up there or not.

A man in a dark suit waves to the crowd as if he's the president, but he's not. No idea who he is. (Aren't these informative cutlines?)

Michael Moore did touch on the Reagan visit and the cash register that was stolen from the Italia Gardens and the missing "Nightline" van. I remember hearing something that Michael was a little loose with the facts concerning that (imagine that) and that the missing van and/or cash register was not actually tied to Reagan's visit. I'm sure that you can find the truth about that visit somewhere on the internet.

somewhat on the subject, i saw bill clinton when he was running for pres the first time in a vacant lot on i beleive stevenson near the scenic flint river with the old chevy in the hole as a backdrop. pretty weird....

also, when al gore was campaigning in 2000 he spoke in the parking lot of the pavilion across from the beautiful genesee towers

flint really went all out for the back-drops on both of those speeches

maybe we could get mccain or obama to speak in front of some of our lovely boarded up abandoned businesses

try again? don't forget that JFK came thru, stopped at the Mich.School for the Deaf on Miller Rd. my older Sister shook his hand. and "tricky" dick nixon came thru in his '68 bid. he and pat stopped in front of zimmerman jr. high, and we were all trotted out to gape at him, shake his dead fish cold hand, too. mrs. n. sat in the back of the limo with a vacant, benign smile athwart her gums. I prefer'd my other nickname for him better...ok this time? hehehe...

My late father Al Frost) was a Genesee County Sheriff back then and family history has it that he was one of the "locals" who guarded Kennedy during his visit to Flint.

I never got a chance to talk to my dad about the Kennedy protection assignment and his late wife, my step-mother, informed me recently (while giving me his badge as a Detective for the Genesee County Sheriff's Department) that he was the cop who busted Don Williamson that sent him to jail with the felony conviction. If it's true -- then Dad went up a few notches in my book.

My older sister let me skip Cook School and took me to see JFK when he visited Flint in 1959 while still the Democratic candidate. I think it was held downtown. The good part was I was first in line to see him up close next to the wooden snow fence put up to separate the crowd from him. The bad part was that same fence. After his speech he started toward the fence exactly where I was standing. Just as I went to shake his hand the large crowd behind me surged forward in waves to shake his hand. I was crushed down into the wooden slats of the snow fence(I was a short 11 year-old). I was starting to feel those damn wooden slats go into my chest and could no longer breath just as Kennedy's local body guards pulled him back from this wild bunch of well wishers to protect him. By doing so they also saved my butt. As his local body guards lead JFK down the field away from the crowd standing on me they backed away to follow him before I ended up with some serious hurt. My belated thanks to Al Frost and all the other Sheriff Deputies protecting JFK that day.

Thanks for commenting. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.

"Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City" by Gordon Young

Support Flint Expatriates

If you'd like to help offset the operating costs of Flint Expatriates, feel free to donate any amount, however small. (We're talking $1-$5 here.) The goal is extremely modest — more profits than AutoWorld!
If Paypal isn't an option for you, simply email me at the Flint Expatriates World Headquarters, also known as my living room, and I'll provide a mailing address: gyoung(at)flintexpats(dot)com.

Google Analytics

DMCA Notice

Flintexpats.com respects the intellectual property of others.

If you believe that your copyrighted work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement and is accessible on this site, you may notify our copyright agent, as set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). For your complaint to be valid under the DMCA, you must provide the following information when providing notice of the claimed copyright infringement:

* A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed

* Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of the infringing activity and that is to be removed

* Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address

* A statement that the complaining party "in good faith believes that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or law"

* A statement that the "information in the notification is accurate", and "under penalty of perjury, the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed"

The above information must be submitted as a written, faxed or emailed notification to the following Designated Agent: Attn: DMCA Office, Flintexpats.com, 418 Anderson St., San Francisco, CA 94110, gyoung@flintexpats.com.

WE CAUTION YOU THAT UNDER FEDERAL LAW, IF YOU KNOWINGLY MISREPRESENT THAT ONLINE MATERIAL IS INFRINGING, YOU MAY BE SUBJECT TO HEAVY CIVIL PENALTIES. THESE INCLUDE MONETARY DAMAGES, COURT COSTS, AND ATTORNEYS’ FEES INCURRED BY US, BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER, OR BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER’S LICENSEE THAT IS INJURED AS A RESULT OF OUR RELYING UPON YOUR MISREPRESENTATION. YOU MAY ALSO BE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR PERJURY.

This information should not be construed as legal advice, for further details on the information required for valid DMCA notifications, see 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3).

Flint Expatriates

A blog for the long-lost residents of the Vehicle City by Gordon Young

"I grew up on the Eastside and recall the unexplained pride I felt when the 3:30 Buick factory whistle blew and the roughly dressed workers poured out of the General Motors labyrinth swinging their lunch pails. Some were headed for home and some for the corner bar, but all with the determined step of an army after a battle won. I somehow felt as if I were a part of this giant assembly line and the city it fed."